Author Topic: cold weather? (Read 4394 times)

dieselpower · « **on:** November 01, 2004, 06:08:07 pm »

ok,
well its been cold here lately...-5* was the coldest haha. anyway i have to plug my car in for it to have anychance of starting the next day. well i was at school today and it was plugged in over night and it started on the first crank this morning....well 6 hours later and a 7 degree increase in temperatur to plus 6 and it just will not start. what can i do to make it satrt a lil better in the cold. it seems like its having problems cranking over. i tried to jump start it with my buddies truck but no luck. i have no clue why it just wont start. im starting to think i should go to the darkside and drive a gasser this winter.
any help with making my car start in colder weather would be very much apreciated.

Mark

chrissev · « **Reply #1 on:** November 01, 2004, 08:59:46 pm »

Quote from: "dieselpower"

ok,
well its been cold here lately...-5* was the coldest haha. anyway i have to plug my car in for it to have anychance of starting the next day. well i was at school today and it was plugged in over night and it started on the first crank this morning....well 6 hours later and a 7 degree increase in temperatur to plus 6 and it just will not start. what can i do to make it satrt a lil better in the cold. it seems like its having problems cranking over. i tried to jump start it with my buddies truck but no luck. i have no clue why it just wont start. im starting to think i should go to the darkside and drive a gasser this winter.
any help with making my car start in colder weather would be very much apreciated.

Mark

What sort of car is it? I'm in Ontario and it was 0 degrees last night (ice on the windows of the car) and I got my car started up no trouble at all. I have a TD Jetta (1988). I find the best way to start it is to glow it, then crank it until it kicks, then as soon as it kicks pull out the cold start lever while giving it some diesel with the accelerator and rev up the engine. I don't pull the lever out quickly, just evenly as I feel the engine catching and reving. I find that if I just pull out the cold start lever and crank it over, it won't start (acts like it's going to start but never kicks in).

You might also have problems with your fuel being jelled up on you, in which case you need an anti-gel additive (go to a truck stop, they have lots).

Other than that, it should start for you all winter, though if it goes below
-10 you might need to plug it in, depending on the condition of your injectors, your battery, and your starter.

Rat407 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 02, 2004, 09:33:42 am »

Do you run synthetic oil? How fresh is your battery?

dieselpower · « **Reply #3 on:** November 02, 2004, 06:00:57 pm »

ok thanks...
i think i figured it out now. my batterery is good as far as i know. but no im not runnign synthetic. im doing an oil change here pretty soon and im going to synthetic then. anyway i have my pump timing adjusted to 1.10 and witht the cold start advance pulled out i think the diesel was being injected waay too soon and actually resisting the cranking of the engine.
thanks for the help

Mark

BlackTieTD · « **Reply #4 on:** November 02, 2004, 06:38:16 pm »

if it keeps giving you problems, do a compression test. no matter what you try, if your compression is too low, it wont want to start in the cold

mainer · « **Reply #5 on:** November 02, 2004, 07:53:09 pm »

when you change the oil try 0w-40, that what i will be using this winter. It is likely to get as low as -35F were i live.....hopefully it will start, i also have no way of pluging it in at school.
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dieselpower · « **Reply #6 on:** November 02, 2004, 11:01:02 pm »

ok thanks alot,
i think my compresion is pretty bad, but it should be good enough. it gets -30C - -40C here and i also have no way of pluging in my car at school. ill try putting a ground strap to the starter. also if i can make room i want to put another battery in it. my dad did that to an old N/A that we had and it started like nothin in th cold.
thanks alot for the help

Mark

ricosuave · « **Reply #7 on:** November 06, 2004, 03:46:28 pm »

about 2/3 through this link, there is a good post about grounding on a3's

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=585949&page=7

dieselpower · « **Reply #8 on:** November 08, 2004, 10:10:40 am »

Thanks for all the help,
it's -6*C right now and it was even colder overnight...well i didnt do anything to my car yet and i forgot to plug it in...well i pushed in the cold start advance and cranked...it caught on the third crank and i pulled it out again and it didnt even buck or miss a little.
thanks for all the ideas tho

Mark

Centurion · « **Reply #9 on:** November 09, 2004, 11:13:59 am »

Well - my test for an engine is to freeze it and see when it will not start - Mostly - I have found -17 to -18 celcuis to be the defining spot were the car either runs or not -

Then I just start a gas thing and drag it in gear in circles till the engine gets warm enough to fire the fuel.

Once I know what temp it will not start - I plug in - or leave the old girl running!

Centurion